Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig Eyes Protest Bid for President

Here’s what that means: If Lessig jumps into the race and wins, he says he would immediately take action to end what he calls the corrupting influence of money in politics. The first is guaranteeing an equal right to vote by passing the Voting Rights Advancement Act (allowing polling locations to be on Native American tribal lands) and the Voter Empowerment Act (promoting voter registration). To the extent that any legislation passes with true popular support, it is typically only because it coincidentally has the support of the elites and average Americans.

To Lessig, this was the only way “to have a referendum within the constitution” and he insisted that while his plan is not “a sure shot”, it is indeed the best shot.

Add to that the fact that the Harvard professor has a track record of bold political plans that have fizzled.

Lessig is also the founder of Mayday PAC, a super PAC advocating campaign finance reforms that would render super PACs like itself obsolete, which raised almost $11 million to spend on Congressional races. But it will give Lessig a larger audience than he had in 2014.

Lessig is looking to raise $1 million by Labor Day. “Obviously, that is more hopeful than the idea of this campaign”, Lessig said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning.

The whole idea is ridiculous, and something you would expect from one of Lessig’s students rather than a respected academic in his 50s, even one that has given TED talks. He said, for example, that the reason his agenda would pass Congress after he’s elected – as opposed to now, when lawmakers aren’t exactly burning midnight oil to debate the Citizen Equality Act’s provisions – is because an election exclusively on those issues will bring an indisputable mandate for action. His hope is to dismantle corruption in Washington by making citizen equality the central pillar of his presidency. Given that Bernie Sanders has gotten flack for similarly reducing racial inequality to a mere instance of another, allegedly more fundamental form of inequality, Lessig could expect similar pushback.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, announced he would run for the highest office on June 1.

“Concise coverage of everything I wish I had hours to read about”.

“And then”, he paused, “that’s too bad for the republic”.

Chock full of usable information on today’s issues.

Lessig thinks a constitutional fix of the ilk proposed by Sanders, Clinton, and Graham simply won’t be enough.

Lessig wants the next president to quickly enact reforms that would give way to small-dollar, public election-financing. And then they would have to enter the broader presidential election.

Lessig made a name for himself in the internet’s infancy co-founding Creative Commons and campaign finance has been his major focus over the last few years – he led a 185-mile walk across New Hampshire for the cause in 2014.

Lessig, who lives in Brookline, concedes he would be a single-issue candidate, but he argued most other issues are wrapped up into this one.